


Day #1: Ugly Sweater

by Accal1a



Series: December Nickels Insanity [1]
Category: Cut & Run - Madeleine Urban & Abigail Roux, Sidewinder Series - Abigail Roux
Genre: Christmas Fluff, Domestic Fluff, M/M, Slice of Life, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-01
Updated: 2018-12-01
Packaged: 2019-09-02 12:12:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16786717
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Accal1a/pseuds/Accal1a
Summary: Nick goes snooping after Kelly is tight lipped about a parcel.





	Day #1: Ugly Sweater

**Author's Note:**

> Oh God, I can't believe we're really doing this...

Kelly trudged in from the cold, his boots covered in snow. The wave of heat that greeted him as soon as he entered his cabin was welcoming, as was the sight of his partner in the kitchen, pottering about and getting something ready for dinner later. Kelly smiled.

It was perfect.

After struggling out of his boots (being incredibly pleased that Nick was looking the other way because he nearly toppled over) and extricating himself from his coat, scarf and gloves he dumped the mail onto the countertop at the end of the open-plan kitchen. It was where all notes, mail and often keys and weapons ended up. He supposed everyone had a place you just dumped stuff in your house without thinking.

The noise had Nick turning his head towards him and Kelly smiled, slipping up behind him and threading his arms around his back to hug him. Nick immediately moved his own hands from what he was doing and covered Kelly's pulling him closer and leaning back into the embrace.

Kelly kissed the back of Nick's shoulder and tried to step away. Nick held on to him and refused to let him go for a second, and Kelly laughed. He didn't know how he had managed to be so lucky as to have a fiancée like he did. He never thought he'd get this sort of happiness in his life. After his failed marriage to a woman he'd convinced himself that he loved, he wasn't even sure love existed. How wrong he had been.

They stayed like that for a few minutes longer and then parted. Kelly picked up the mail he'd thrown down on the side and started to sift through it, immediately chucking any junk mail that he had received into the recycling bin on the floor.

"I live in the middle of nowhere, in a house that I built myself, and they still think I might need double glazing." Kelly said, laughing.

Nick chuckled too, finishing off in the kitchen by washing his hands. He was drying them off with a tea towel when he saw the lumpy package that was sitting on the side. It was wrapped up in brown paper and secured with copious amounts of parcel tape. Kelly's address was printed on it in sharp block capitals with a felt tip pen.

"What is _that_?"

"Nothing." Kelly mumbled quickly. Too quickly. He looked immediately shifty and Nick raised an eyebrow at his sudden reticence to talk.

The look in Nick's eyes was all the warning Kelly got before Nick was lunging towards the package and attempting to open it.

Kelly was faster, plucking up the parcel and hugging it to his chest.

"No."

Nick narrowed his eyes at his partner, but acquiesced, assuming that it was a present for him and therefore content to wait until Christmas Day to open it.  
  
Kelly went upstairs and hid it at the back of his wardrobe, away from prying eyes.  
  
~~~  
  
Christmas Day came and went without any presents that looked anywhere near the size of the parcel that Kelly had received and Nick's curiosity was now well and truly piqued.

The next time Kelly went to town to pick up supplies, Nick went on a hunt for the parcel. He'd feel bad about it later if Kelly was upset, but he couldn't just let it lie. His detective nose was telling him that he needed to find out what this was. They had no secrets between each other anyway.

What Nick found, right at the back of Kelly's cupboard stopped him in his tracks. It was a box, a fairly large box that had been covered with some spare blankets and random accoutrements that ended up being thrown in the back of a cupboard after years of living in one place. The box was heavy, and Nick had to slide it out of the space into the bedroom proper in order to open it.

When he got it open he broke out into a huge grin.

_Oh, this was going to be good._

~~~  
  
Kelly was immediately on alert when he entered his too-silent cabin. He gently kicked the door of the cabin closed with his foot, doing the dance of everyone who has ever tried to walk through a door with arms full of groceries.  
  
"Nick?" He called, getting only silence in return.

He moved silently towards the kitchen, dropping the bags to the counter top, careful to not let the paper bags crinkle and give him away; despite the fact that he knew if anyone nefarious was here they would have heard him come in. Still, he didn't have to give away his position any more than he already had.

He pulled his handgun from the pile of stuff artfully hiding it. It wouldn't have stood up to a proper search, but a cursory search around the room for weapons wouldn't have pinged anyone's radar. It felt good to have it in his hand, this was something he knew well. All of his training, the training that he fell back into with ease, kicked in as he very quietly traversed his cabin and started to climb the stairs. He knew all the spots where the wood creaked, the places that he had to step on for only two seconds before it started to make a noise, the steps he had to miss entirely. He knew every inch of his home; knew how to use it to his advantage; and knew how to make it a disadvantage for an adversary. If someone had broken in, they were going to be sorry. If someone had hurt Nick, they were going to be in a world of pain.  
  
He peered around the corner of his bedroom, leading with his gun, and stopped in the doorway when he saw what was in there, or rather what wasn't in there. There was no threat at all.

"I nearly shot you!" Kelly cried indignantly, lowering his gun when he saw it was just his fiancée, sitting on the floor of their bedroom.

"No you didn't, you've got better reflexes than that."

"Okay fine I didn't bu…what are you looki…oh shit." Kelly finished, looking down at the box on the floor, a box he _knew_ had been at the back of his closet just this morning.  
  
"Why haven't I seen these before?" Nick asked, picking up another item from the cardboard container.

"Oh well... it's just...they don't." Kelly stammered.

"And why would you _hide_ them?" Nick teased, holding up a frankly horrific Christmas jumper that his last foster mother, the one he considered as close to a mother as he'd ever had after his own died, had knitted him. "Try one on?"

"No."

"Kels..." Nick tried again, employing what Kelly had taken to calling his "cute kicked puppy face". He was normally powerless against it, but not today. There was no _way_ he was putting on one of those jumpers.

" _No_."

"But this one," Nick pulled out a black jumper that had a knitted K on it in beautiful wool that merged from green to blue to grey and created a unique pattern, "matches your eyes. I want to see you in it."

Kelly resisted for a moment longer, but really, what was he going to say to that? He sighed resignedly and reached out his hand for it.

Nick threw it at him and Kelly caught it deftly.

"I hate you." Kelly stated.

"No you don't." Nick sing-songed as Kelly stripped off his outer layers so he could get the jumper on.

Once he was standing there, looking down at Nick, stupid itchy garment on, he looked mutinous.

Nick lifted his phone and took a photo, before bursting out laughing.

Kelly crossed his wrists at the hem of the jumper so that he could take the offensive item of clothing off.

Nick was still laughing and Kelly could feel his face heating up. He didn't blush often, but when he did it was patently obvious to anyone who saw him. Damn his fiancée.

After Kelly had folded the jumper carefully (he might hate the damn things, but they were sent with love and he didn't want them damaged either) and set it on the edge of the bed. He looked up again and there was a split second where neither of them spoke...then Nick threw another jumper at him.

"No."

"Aww, Kels." Nick said with a grin.

"Fine, one more."

~~~  
Six jumpers later Kelly was laughing along with Nick.

There was something highly infectious about the unbridled joy in Nick's face whenever he saw Kelly in a new monstrosity. The bright green one with a reindeer and a bright red pom pom for a nose caused Nick to wheeze from laughter, completely unable to catch his breath; and Kelly couldn't help his own smile. Anything that put that much joy on his partner's face was worth it.

Kelly didn't take jumper number nine off (navy blue, giant snowflake on the front), because Nick pulled him down to the floor and kissed the grin off his face.

"I can't believe you made me do this." Kelly said when they stopped the kiss.

"You make me so happy Kels." Nick replied.

Kelly was about to reply with something equally as sappy when Nick continued.

"Even if your wardrobe is horrific."

**Author's Note:**

> Come and visit the [Cut & Run Discord Server](https://discord.gg/vvy6c76) and join us as we discuss/scream about this awesome series.


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